Two major manufacturers of bow mountable fishing motors are Minn Kota and Motor Guide. The functional operations of storing/locking, launching, operating, and retrieving the trolling motor are usually accomplished in their systems manually with a rope or system of levers.
Recently, MotorGuide has developed bow mounted trolling motors with controlled positioning of a motor for storing/locking, launching, operating, or retrieving, and controlled operation of the motor for propulsion. The system (MotorGuide X3 Fast Cable Bow Mount Trolling Motor) has a cable connecting a foot control unit to the positioning mechanism, as well as to the motor steering and propulsion unit. The control of the trolling motor is attained through actuating a foot pedal to control a dual-cable pull-pull steering system to affect the motor operation. Thus, the control system in the Motorguide X3 Fast Control Bow Mounting Trolling Motor is not wireless.
An additional shortcoming of the prior art system is that in order to turn the system ON/OFF, a boat operator must walk to the bow of the boat to press the corresponding button.
Because the current designs of commercial trolling motors require manual positioning at the bow of the boat, safety and convenience become critical issues during extreme sea states and insufficient daylight conditions. With the existing trolling motor systems, users, especially elderly and handicapped people are thus placed in dangerous situations due to the requirement of manual positioning and operation of the bow mounted electric trolling motors.
Thus, there is a critical need in the trolling motors industry to eliminate the need of a person shifting or otherwise maneuvering on the boat to operate the trolling motor located at one end of the boat, as well as to replace manual operation with fully automated wireless remotely controlled positioning and operation of the trolling motor.